Crafting
Crafting is one of Vanguard's "three spheres" (the other two being adventuring and diplomacy). The crafting system is a fantastically complex and interesting system that is also useful. Some really good equipment comes from crafting, and gear made from it is highly customizable. In addition, crafting is how one can get things like houses and boats, which are not only useful, but really cool. This page is a general overview of the major crafting terms... more details will follow as people can add them in, also see the link above to reach our crafting-exclusive wiki. For a specific guide on crafting stat management, click HERE . Crafting Types Crafting is broken into three major groups, each of which has sub-categories (specialties). The major groups are Artificing, Blacksmithing, and Outfitting. Artificing includes Carpentry and Mineralogy, while Blacksmithing contains Weaponsmithing and Armorsmithing, and Outfitting contains Leatherworking and Tailoring. All crafts include expendable item patterns and upgrades, but the type and uses vary wildly. 'Artificer' Artificing includes the skills needed to assemble houses and boats, but requires components from the other crafts. However, it also includes the ability to make wooden weapons, such as staves, and many expendable items, such as statues, for temporary buffs, as well as furniture and items for houses. 'Blacksmith ' Blacksmithing is the art of making weapons and heavy armor, as well as miscellaneous metal items such as horseshoes. 'Outfitter' Outfitting is the craft of making light (Tailoring) and medium (Leatherworking) armor as well as expendable items such as bandages. It also includes the (really useful) art of making bags, cloth bags (Tailoring) for normal slots and saddlebags (Leatherworking) for your horse. In general, crafted items are better than most drops, especially if you can get very high quality ones (more explanation on that later). Specialties As mentioned above, each crafting type has sub-categories, or specialties. When you reach level 11 in your crafting, you will need to go do a quest and take a specialty. After this point, you will be able to make the generic items for your craft plus whatever is in your specialty, but you will stink at making items in the other specialty. For example, a Kojani Blacksmith who specializes in Weaponsmithing will be able to make generic Blacksmithing items, like horseshoes, but he won't be able to make any but the crummiest copper plate armor. Region Unlike a lot of games, Vanguard crafters don't make the same stuff if they're from different places. This can have a tremendous effect on the appearance of gear and items, especially things like houses and boats. A Qalian boat and a Kojani boat look very different from one another. There are three "regional" crafting styles -- Thestran, Kojani, and Qalian. Your race determines your starting crafting "style", even if you start on the Isle of Dawn. You can learn additional regions at any time, by doing special quests. (These quests typically involve a lot of running around and making special items.) However, the tier quests for each regional style are different. Tiers Each crafting style has tiers, beginning with Apprentice. You can keep going up in levels as long as you gain experience making things, but you can't learn new patterns unless you have completed "tier quests" that give you special titles and flags. Most of these quests require a lot of running around and making special items. If you want to know multiple region styles, you will have to do the tier quests for each one separately. For example, if you have a Halfling Paladin who started with Thestran style and becomes an Amateur Blacksmith (tier 2), then goes on to learn Kojani style, is still only a Kojani Novice Blacksmith (tier 1), and has to go do the Kojani Amateur Blacksmithing quest. This is a bit of a pain, but it's a one-time thing, and gives you more flexibility in the appearance of your stuff. These quests can be obtained by any crafter type and will be required to be completed in order to attain new recipes to craft better items. These quests are able obtainable at levels 11 (Novice/Amateur), 21 (Apprentice), 31 (Initiate), and 41 (Journeyman). Below is a progressive order of quests (from Novice to Journeyman) with the NPC you need to speak with, Tier Level, materials required, and faction required. Specialization Quest At level 11 you are given a quest allowing you to choose a specialization within you parent tradeskill. Once you pick a specialization, or sooner if you know which route you plan to take before hand, you should set the option that you do not choose to negative (the – button on the right of the bar on the skills window). This will push your skill in that other type down to 0 and allow you to put those points back into the two skill types you will need (your parent type and your specialization type). Do not leave points in the type you didn’t specialize in, or you will only hurt your ability to craft items of your specialization as well as delay when you learn new skills. You may change specializations later on if you choose, but you will lose all recipes, including special dropped rare recipes if you do. If you change within your parent class, such as Tailoring to Leatherworking, you will not lose any skill points but you will need to change the direction of your skills to drive them in the right direction. If you change to another trade entirely, like tailoring to carpenter, you start over at level 1 with 0 skills. Tier Quests, Recipe Quests, Continental Styles Quests They are all basically the same thing after level 11. These are the quests that you must complete in order to learn recipes of each tier for each continent. You will not need to do the novice continental style quest for your home continent. PLEASE NOTE: the amateur (level 11) quest is NOT the same thing as the specialization quest. These both take place at level 11, but they are two separate things. Many people assume that because they chose their specialization they are now amateur crafters and should have new recipes, only to be sadly disappointed, not to mention confused. The Tier quests take place at level 11, 21, 31 and so on, and allow you to learn more recipes from your trainers. Along with the completion of the quest, you gain a new title. From Novice, you go to Amateur, Apprentice, and upward through the ranks until you reach the top of your profession. Expect your crafting profession to change as you increase in level through each ranks, with the process slowly changing and becoming even more complex. For the tier quests you need to do them for each continent to gain recipes on those continents. Also note: when you are asked to craft an item for these quests, these are not work orders. You must supply your own materials, so be prepared! Along with unlocking recipes, completing each tier quest gives you continental artisan faction, as well as decent amount of crafting experience. Note: With the displaying of all recipes, you will end up seeing recipes that are level 18, 19, 20, etc that require the Apprentice Quest which you can't do till level 21. The reason is, these are not intended to be given to you till level 21, they display the lower levels so that when you do get them at level 21, they are much easier to do than if they would have been marked as level 21 recipes. I know its confusing but they were not intended to be given till you are Apprentice level (and same with later ones).